MCX Delays Release of Its Mobile Payment Service

By Reuters

May 16, 2016

Merchant Customer Exchange, a developer of mobile payment technology whose strategy has been thrown into question by big retailers developing their own mobile wallets, said on Monday that it was postponing the nationwide rollout of its service and had cut 30 jobs.

The company’s chief, Brian Mooney, said in a statement that in the short term it would focus on partnerships with financial institutions.

MCX’s service, CurrentC, lets shoppers pay for items with their mobile phones and uses a scannable code to initiate transactions. It has been in development for three years and recently started a pilot in stores in Columbus, Ohio.

With the backing of many of the largest U.S. retailers, CurrentC had been seen as one of several promising entrants in the crowded mobile payments space, and a rival to Apple Pay. In October, MCX signed a deal with JPMorgan Chase to accept payment through the bank’s technology.

Also Monday, Walmart activated its own mobile payment system, unveiled late last year, in nearly 600 stores in Texas and Arkansas.

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